Salazar proposes commission on health care

[Thom Little]

Lawmakers looking to control health care costs that have left 46 million Americans without medical insurance should seek advice from experts and statesmen, Sen. Ken Salazar said.

"Our current health care system costs too much, it covers too little, and it hampers health care quality," Salazar said Tuesday during a briefing at Colorado College.

Salazar, D-Colo., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are proposing a national commission that would study the number of uninsured, the rising cost of health care, and the effects on people and businesses.

Salazar envisions a 10-member commission split between Democrats and Republicans, including health care workers and people with backgrounds in government service.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CO_SALAZAR_HEALTH_CARE_COOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-11-23-20-21-27

[Denver Dave]

1. Colorado Health Care Hearings

Here is a link to the Colorado section of the Health Care Talk discussion ( www.HCTalk.com )about access to health care: http://hctalk.com/viewforum.php?f=2

I'm not sure if the mentioned task force is related to the Citizen Health Care Hearing Task Force hearings scheduled for April 2006 or not.

It is time for Democrats to get serious about health care and not just use the right words and form commissions to "study". The candidates that support Universal Health Care get my vote, money and yard signs.

Please join in the discussion for Colorado.

[F.Gordon]

2. A little irony

Our small biz health insurance premiums include about $40 a month to fund a Colorado individual health care plan. It would be cheaper for us to dump the biz plan and do the state individual but we can't qualify for it.
:crazy:

Another story... I just applied for the state's free Nicotine Patch program. I was asked if I had health insurance and the lady on the phone was literally shocked when I responded... "Yes". Apparently almost none of the people calling in for the free patches had health insurance.

Wonderful country we live in.
:eyes:

[Robb]

3. Colorado Health Institute just put out a report

on our state's uninsurance rate, 17.1% (770,000 people) versus 15.7% nationally. Obviously this includes really crappy health insurance.

Interesting snippet (to me): "Nearly two-thirds of uninsured adults (62.9%) worked for businesses with fewer
than 100 employees ... Adults without a high school diploma were twice as likely to be uninsured as those with a diploma, and four times as likely to lack insurance as people with education beyond high school."

CHI website: www.coloradohealthinstitute.org

[F.Gordon]

4. That was a cheery read

CO uninsured goes from 14.9% to 17.1% in four years.

But not factored in is how the State Medicaid program has essentially been trashed. It's one thing to have 14.9% uninsured with Medicaid being more readily available.... than 17.1% with virtually NO Medicaid. Puts a different "spin" on the statistics.

:(